Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001
OK, so I guess I’d better publicly apologise for my previous bitching on the subject, but I only said those things because I care.
So… now that we actually have concrete evidence for water on Mars, how’s about we all get together and start exploring the place properly, eh?
The technical obstacles and logistical difficulties to sending a manned mission to Mars are large, but by no means insurmountable. One of the biggest issues is the launch from Mars and subsequent return journey … which is just one of the reasons former NASA engineer Jim McLane reckons a Mars mission should be one-person and one-way only. [via SlashDot; image courtesy NASA]
“When we eliminate the need to launch off Mars, we remove the mission’s most daunting obstacle,” said McLane. And because of a small crew size, the spacecraft could be smaller and the need for consumables and supplies would be decreased, making the mission cheaper and less complicated.
While some might classify this as a suicide mission, McLane feels the concept is completely logical.
“There would be tremendous risk, yes,” said McLane, “but I don’t think that’s guaranteed any more than you would say climbing a mountain alone is a suicide mission. People do dangerous things all the time, and this would be something really unique, to go to Mars. I don’t think there would be any shortage of people willing to volunteer for the mission [...] That will be the easiest part of this whole program.”
If you met the physical criteria for a mission like that, would you volunteer? I’d certainly consider it, I think, but in truth I don’t think I’m quite that brave.
And while we’re on the subject of planets in our solar system, there may be another one to add to the list. Via Warren Ellis comes news that Japanese astronomers believe they have located an as-yet undiscovered planet that is half the mass of our own Earth.
Of course, this “Planet X” is way out in the Kuiper Belt and orbits the sun about once every thousand years, so it’s not a very likely candidate for exploration. But it makes you wonder how much more stuff there is lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system waiting to be discovered.
Gravitational lensing is all the rage in astronomy right now. A confirmation of one of Einstein’s theories, the phenomenon has seen recent use in mapping dark matter and detecting exoplanets.
To avoid making myself look like the bluffer and layman enthusiast that I am, I’ll defer to the experts and let Phil “Bad Astronomy” Plait explain how gravitational lenses work, and point out that the Hubble telescope has just found a big new crop of them. [Image: NASA, ESA, C. Faure (Zentrum für Astronomie, University of Heidelberg) and J.P. Kneib (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille)]
“Big deal,” you might be thinking. In which case, I’ll direct you to Centauri Dreams, where you’ll find an explanation of how the phenomenon might be used for the rapid propulsion of interstellar probes or (in the comments) communication between star systems.
I’m late to the party as far as announcing the arrival of the new Google Earth features that let you explore the sky as well as the ground, but I’m not going to let that stop me. Once the excitement of roaming the real stars has faded, however, you can skip on over to Galaxiki - which, as the name suggests, is a wiki-based community that is building a fictional galaxy by describing the star systems within it.[BoingBoing]
I quite like the idea of being able to create my own solar system … for one thing, I’d make sure that I avoided picking a sun that does freaky stuff to its planets with low-frequency waves. We’re all doomed! Possibly. [Image by jesiehart]
Emboldened by their recent success with their Genesis modules (and worried about the rising cost of space launches), Bigelow Aerospace are skipping the preliminaries and moving straight on to their Sundancer project - a human-habitable inflatable space station. [Colony Worlds]
I think I’m largely preaching to the choir when I plug the benefits of space exploration here at Futurismic, but I’m not going to let that stop me. And we’re not alone in our beliefs - the former President of India says that the vast energy resources that space technologies can exploit make the price of admission well worthwhile.
Meanwhile over at Space.com, Al Globus explains how space colonisation is a viable alternative to war (here’s a hint - resources again), and points out that repurposing the military budgets of the world into space habitats would make the necessary budgets look tiny. I agree with him entirely, but I doubt he’ll have much luck convincing the hawkish types who make decisions of that kind. Still, fingers crossed. [Image from NASA]
It’s a tautology to say that Mars isn’t the most friendly environment for human explorers. In addition to the lack of atmosphere, fluctuating temperatures and high levels of cosmic radiation, fierce storms of super-fine Martian dust could present a serious problem for bold pioneers on the Red Planet’s surface. In fact, Mars’ surface is inimical to local lifeforms, too - which is why NASA’s forthcoming Phoenix Lander will be digging beneath the surface in its hunt for indigenous microbial critters.
Via the latest Carnival of the Space Geeks hosted at Colony Worlds comes word of a new design of space suit, created by Louise Riofrio. Although, as Ms. Riofrio admits, it’s actually quite an old design, at least in principle; the suits given to the X-1 test pilots were based on the same theory of using mechanical counter-pressure as opposed to inflating the suit with air. Riofrio’s suits are allegedly lighter, safer and more comfortable than the ‘bubble suits’ currently in use … and they look a bit more stylish, too.
